PLUMBERS' AWARD

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 90, 16 April 1917, Page 8

PLUMBERS' AWARD

UNION'S NEW DEMANDS.

/Demands have- been filed with the Clerk of Awards by;the New Zealand Federated Plumbers ■ and Gasfitters'" Industrial Association of Workers for a new award to replace the Dominion award at present operating. It is sought to have an award for the Northern, Wel.lingtou, Canterbury, Nelson, Taranaki, Ofcago, and Southland industrial districts. The following are the main points in the claims :—

v Hours of Work : 44 per week, with permission for an employer to agree with his workers to allow half an hour for dinner during the period from Ist May to 31st August, so that work shall cease at 4.30 p.m.

Overtime : From 5 to 7 p.m., time and a-quarter; 7 to 9 p.m., time and a-half; 9 p.m. to 8 a.m., double time; work done on specified holiday, and Sundays, double time; noon to 9 p.m. on Saturdays, time and a-half.

Wages: Journeyman plumbers and gasfitters, 2s p«r hour. Country and 1 suburban work : .In country work, which necessitates the worker lodging elsewhere than his usual place of residence, travelling expenses shall be paid, also time spent in travelling, and an allowance of 4s per day made or board and' lodging provided. Suburban work is defined as work performed at a distance of over.. one and a-half miles from the employer's place of business, and it is prov.'ded that travelling expenses shall be met and payment made for travelling time beyond a mile and a-half.

Wages sought for apprentices commence at 10s per week for the first year, rising to £2 5s per week for the sixth year. A new clause provides :'." Where practicable within the scope of this award, it shall be compulsory upon employers to allow apprentices two halfdays of labour per week in the first three years of their apprenticeship, to attend technical schools for instruction; and it shall be obligatory upon an apprentico to attend such school for instruction, according to the times arranged. 1'

Other demands relate to the engagement of labour through the union office, carrying materials, under-rate workers, provision of tools, and preference.